As a part of New Voices of Philanthropy's series of articles from other new voices on Philanthropy, I bring you part two of Allyson Reaves' blogs on philanthropy fellowships. Part one can be found here. From Allyson:

And They Gave Me 10-15

One of the big things I’m hoping to exchange some information about this week is the idea of ‘philanthroshipping’ (my corny attempt for a new Webster addition: a fellowship and/or internship in philanthropy…cute, huh?). I was sitting at my orderly Program Associate desk at our South Carolina community foundation one day, and I was daydreaming about how I could become specialized in and get my dream job working for international philanthropy (according to most job descriptions in our field, you HAVE to be specialized….but I’m not, and it’s a tad tough to go back to school now)….then I started to worry about the security of my future….retirement…how can I pay back my excessive student loans…….arg!!!!!

Just that moment, dum dum dum dummmmmmm………the President/CEO of our foundation walks into my office, slides a paper on my desk….and says she thinks I might be interested.

While I’m thinking that this paper is a synopsis of some fabulous new report in the field, or a copy of an article from one of the field’s publications, it was an application to the Emerging Leaders International Fellows Program at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (CPCS) in New York City (www.philanthropy.org).

January 2007Long story short, I sent in the paperwork, held my breath for about a month or so……….and was accepted.

Now I was working (at the community foundation) for the type of President who wants to see her team grow…even if it means benching some players once in a while, and so she let me go with her blessing.

March 2007After we mapped out a contract that pinpointed duties that I could maintain during the 3 months in NYC, I packed up a few annual reports, left a detailed AWAY message on my voicemail, grabbed some business cards, and got on the philanthroship to the Big Apple.

I want to share that this was by far the most influential span of time in my career so far. This fellowship, based at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, was a remarkable roundtable of consistent dialogue and learning, a tremendous network-building venture, and a flat out awesome intellectual exercise in the field of philanthropic work.

June 2007I wrapped up the fellowship and I was convinced….. International Philanthropy was what I wanted…but I couldn’t find my shot to the top in South Carolina…and I still didn’t have the experience I needed for the position I wanted.

Just when I was daydreaming again…..in comes an e-mail from the fellowship’s ListServ with an announcement about a program in Italy…………..

The announcement read as follows:

There is a call for applications which makes 20 internships available for non-Italian graduates. The maximum age is 30. The deadline is 30 June 2007.

For one internship, knowledge of Italian is not requested. For the remaining 19 internships, a fair knowledge of Italian is requested. All the details are available in the call for applications (see below).

February 2008While I’m now working on my Italian, this philanthroship that I’m involved with at Fondazione CRT in Torino (www.fondazionecrt.it) is just what Mr. Advancemeplease suggested- getting some intense experience under my belt so that perhaps one day…I can be considered as a potential job candidate with a specialized area of expertise…maybe 10 - 15 years early!!

While fellowships are usually associated with graduate or doctoral programs, there are a variety of research and work-based programs that are intended for practitioners in their chosen field. Just in case you might be looking for a change of environment, take a look at these programs, and see if they might be a match: